Penguin or cat toys

Here is today's penguin...constructed from cat toys (or cat toy parts). As I was looking through the potential penguin parts, supervisory activity increased. There was a supervisory ratio of two supervisors to one penguin builder/toy thief.

Here is the deconstructed penguin.

Here is one of the supervisors assessing whether any cat toys were harmed during penguin construction.

Penguin or ?

Is it a penguin?

Or Totoro?

Buddy doesn't care...he's just glad I stopped trying to play "Penguin or Buddy?"

Frolic and Pistachio Penguin

I cut more blue and green strips and only have 9 more sets of triangle sets to cut. Sigh! And today there was a kitten loose in the house who decided to knock my drink on top of me. And the amazing thing about kittens is that they don't even to know it they were involved at all. Also, the look of wonder that one gets when the kitten is discovered at 1 AM in the morning shredding tissue paper on the top shelf in the hall closet. I am hoping that Molly grows out of this kitten phase when she turns six this year. Meanwhile, I give Buddy very stern warnings when I catch him chasing the poor defenseless kitten.

And continuing with "A Penguin a Day" for January, here is a penguin on a pistachio shell.

Plaid Penguin

Here is the revised African Penguin pattern resized and made up in plaid. So okay, it's a Portland Penguin now. It's roughly 10 by 11 inches...a very reasonable size, but yes it's based on a half inch grid with some one inch strips and one inch square flip triangles.  It can also be made to have criss-crossed wings with other penguins, but this one is going it alone.

African Penguin block pattern 1.0

Yesterday I made a sock stuffed African penguin (or Cape penguin) and I liked how the white came up onto his head. I also learned that they have a bit of pink around their eye. I didn't have a pink fuzzy sock, so I used white instead.

Unfortunately to include the detail of the bill and the eye, ends up with a penguin block that is roughly 16 by 19 using a .75 grid (cutting 1.25 inches). However, then there are these huge expanses in the belly and neck. So I think I will be revisiting this pattern, taking out some of the eye detail and making a smaller penguin.

I do like the crossing wings as they stand together, and yes, the x is for extinction, which is where the African penguin is heading.

And yes, I'm back to cutting more blue and green strips for the latest clue for Bonnie Hunter's Frolic mystery quilt.

Sock Penguin

Here is an African penguin made out of fuzzy socks. I made the beak too long so it looks a bit like Jimmy Durante. The directions for making this penguin are excellent and can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXw4_FySvgY.

Molly helped me make him by attacking the fuzzy socks, biting and kicking them into submission. She also tried to help me by attacking the YouTube video and trying to switch to a bird video. But if she had just waited until the end of the tutorial, she would have seen a release of African penguins into the ocean. She also helped by trying to steal my thread, run off with the penguin's eyes, and rip the plastic bag holding the stuffing. Good thing Molly is still a kitten or I would find her "help" this side of annoying.

The penguin and Buddy had a staring contest and now the penguin looks a lot like Buddy.

Welcome to the New Year

Beached whale with penguins.

This morning I was ready with my new year resolution: Sign everything with the year 2020.

However, Molly had other plans which she outlined to me as she stood over me while I was still in bed. She said I had two resolutions:

1. Less Input. I understood this one right away. Less input...more output. And I don't have to be listening to something or watching or reading something at all times. Molly agreed with this interpretation in general, but thought I should think of it as less input...more Molly.

2. Less Buddy. Literally, not figuratively. Well, I guess figuratively too in case that means we need to work on his figure.

And here's my progress on the Bonnie Hunter mystery Frolic. She added a step midweek and this year I anticipated another clue before this Friday. But I had not made my second pile of half-square triangles (HSTs) or made the flying geese or finished cutting the triangles. But now all those components are cut and ready for the sewing machine...wherever that is.

Meanwhile, if you take all the components we've made so far, and then assume we will make another set of flying geese with our remaining triangles...we still have 15 percent of the quilt unaccounted for.  We know the area that our components will cover...but it only accounts for 85 percent of the quilt's size. And yes, given how few neutrals we have used, I am suspecting we will pull from there. But no, I'm not putting the rest of the fabric away yet.

Now I'm off to see what information The Quilt Show has for the Sue Garmin Afternoon Delight quilt-a-long. I already had the set of patterns and fabric pulled...so we'll see how far I get with this combination of tiny patchwork and appliqué.